Summer Ghosts
by TheRubyKate
Summary: Ginny finds herself spending the war with Loony Luna Lovegood. GL femslash.
1. Chapter One

At the end of your sixth year, Hogwarts is in chaos, full of rumours about Voldemort's return that are only strengthened by the sudden disappearance of Harry, Hermione and Ron last week. On one of the last nights of term you wake up to candlelight and whispers: the sixth year Ravenclaw girls are here because, as Grace Midgen announces, the best two houses should stick together. Bravery and wisdom conquer all.

It's two to a bed and Loony Luna Lovegood crawls in beside you without a word of greeting or recognition, as though you do not exist and this is her bed. In the next bed, Maeve Finnegan speaks tentatively to a serious audience and says that her brother told her that nobody's going to be going home this summer, and then Rebecca Ackerly chimes in to announce that actually, the rest of the world is at war already, but it's top secret.

You curl up to compensate for the fact that Luna's knees and elbows seem to be all over the place, and pull the quilt over your head.

---

The Ravenclaw girls do not go back to their part of the castle in the morning. It's two to a sink in the bathroom, same pairs as last night, and Luna brushes her teeth with odd-smelling green foam that drips down the sink and onto the sleeve of your nightdress. Everyone gets dressed in the crowded dormitory in silence, the Ravenclaw girls having brought their uniform along with them.

At breakfast, McGonagall announces that students are to go home after all, although everyone is invited to stay behind on the presentation of a permission slip from a parent. Charlie sent you a brief Owl yesterday, saying he'd meet you at the station, but somehow you can't imagine being in his care for the holidays - he was always quiet and uncomfortable around anybody else. So it's likely you'll be staying for summer. Your parents are in Egypt with Bill, Ron's missing, Percy's missing, you think the twins are at Grimmauld Place but you haven't heard from them in a while - so it's only Charlie who's lurking around at the Burrow.

---

It's not that you dislike Loony Luna Lovegood, it's just that she's a little odd. That doesn't usually put you off, but coming to bed to find that she's already in it is not something you want to deal with right now. She's brought her own blanket this time at least: ancient patchwork with embroidered dragons.

On this night, the crowded dormitory is silent, except for the sound of Maeve's snoring, the late night of yesterday catching up with them. In contrast, you lie awake, staring up at the stars on the ceiling of your four poster bed, ignoring Luna's elbow poking at your stomach.

---

It comes as a surprise to you the following morning, when McGonagall reads out the list of students who are staying, and your name is not on the list. So you scurry up to your dormitory and pack frantically, because although everyone was instructed to do so the night before regardless of expectations, you didn't. Luna sits on your bed, and watches you in silence. Her name wasn't on the list either.

---

You and Luna have a habit of sitting together on the Hogwarts Express. At the beginning of every year, you take a long while to get used to the idea of talking to quiet Maeve and blank Sarah and the rest of the Gryffindor girls that all seem ever so dull and difficult compared to your brothers. Luna, on the other hand, has always been always easy to sit next to. She'll read the Quibbler in comfortable silence until you'd run out of things to think about, and then she'd read to you in a perfectly serious voice and not mind (or maybe not notice) you laughing behind your hand. And at the end of the year, when all the girls were crying and calling out farewells to one another, it was nice to slip away and sit next to quiet, serious Luna.

Sometimes you see her in lessons too, although not to talk to. In Care of Magical Creatures, she helps Hagrid with the demonstrations and doesn't seem to blink when her hair is singed or her robes torn. In Herbology, she sits opposite you and you're sure you can see her whisper to the plants. In Charms, her strange singsong voice can be heard clear above the other students. She doesn't share any of your other classes, and she doesn't play Quidditch, so that's all.

On this day, you and Luna share an empty carriage in silence, as usual. Sounds echo through the door that won't shut properly: whispers, nervous coughs, the squeaks of ancient seats shifting under fidgety students.

---

When the train reaches the station, and the crowd of students disembark to mingle with the unusually large crowd on the platform, you go and sit against a pillar and wait for everyone to disperse before you attempt to find Charlie. In groups of threes and fours, people begin to filter away, and you scan the figures that are left for your brother.

But the only person you recognise is Luna, who is singing to herself and walking up and down a white line painted on the platform, one foot carefully in front of the other and avoiding stepping off the line.

You can't recall if Charlie has a tendency to arrive anywhere late. As far as you remember he always turned up unexpectedly.

"Luna," you call, because it's the only thing left. "Hasn't anyone come for you, either?"

Luna stops, one foot still in front of the other, and wobbles a little as she looks around her. "No," she says, at last. Though she seems to have only just noticed, she doesn't seem in the slightest bit worried.

"Do you know how to use the… Muggle train… tube thingy?"

---

You've only been on a Muggle tube once, and you can barely remember it. You were in your father's arms, watching Ron charging up and down the carriage and falling over people, and when you got home you were desperate to tell your mother about your adventure, only you'd promised not to.

Luna's answer to your question was a simple 'yes', although she didn't go into any explanations as to how she knew Muggle London so well. You find yourself dashing after her through crowds and across roads full of cars that somehow look far scarier than the old Ford Anglia, trying to keep your trunk from bashing people in the shins. Luna doesn't seem to notice when her trunk hits people, and you attempt to smile apologetically at everyone but soon give up and stare at Luna's shoes instead.

After the tube, which is quite unlike your memory of it, Luna leads you onto a more normal looking train which is going to Ottery St. Catchpole itself. The two of you easily find a carriage to yourselves and Luna buys two cups of hot chocolate from the Muggle lady pushing a drinks trolley, producing oddly shaped Muggle money from inside her socks. It's not really the weather for hot chocolate, on this typical July day, but you murmur a "thank you" and drink it anyway.

And finally you stumble out of the train station into the quiet village of Ottery St. Catchpole. You turn to Luna and aren't quite sure what to say in terms of a goodbye, and she smiles and says, "I'll see you soon, maybe. Don't forget to Owl."

"Of course I won't," you say, effortlessly, and turn around and drag your trunk up the steep hill.


	2. Chapter Two

You enter through the back door and know that something's wrong immediately. So you leave your trunk lying on the kitchen floor and step out into the hall, and call out names nervously. You start with "Charlie" because at least you know he's supposed to be here, but there's no answer. The rest of your brothers would've responded anyway, but you carry on calling names just in case.

"Fred!", "George!" come next because you've climbed the stairs and are outside their room, but the door's open and they're not there. So you keep climbing the stairs, "Mum! Dad!" "Percy!" (just in case), "Bill!" "Ron?" (even though it's his whereabouts that you're least sure about), and eventually have to accept the fact that you are alone in the house.

---

Luna's front door is open and when you step gingerly into the hall, you see that she is sitting there on a trunk, with her head in her hands, gazing at the floor. She looks up, and says, "My father's not here."

"I can't find my family either." She moves up to make room, and you sit beside her. "You don't think…?"

"That all the rumours are true and that everyone's just been killed?" Luna says, far too casually. "No, I don't."

"But how would we know?"

"We wouldn't," Luna says, and doesn't sound the slightest bit worried.

---

In the Lovegood's kitchen, you and Luna discover a loaf of bread that would have gone mouldy days ago if it wasn't for the charmed bread bin, and a jar of jam hiding in the back of a cupboard behind past issues of The Quibbler. She cuts the bread, you spread the jam, and eat without plates because Luna doesn't know where they're kept.

Of all people, you suppose Luna would be the nicest to take refuge with. She's oddly comforting, if altogether too unruffled, but you suppose that her father's her only remaining relative and he probably disappears all the time, and Luna can't spend much time here if she doesn't know where the plates are.

At that point, Errol arrives, hurtling through the cat flap in the back door and skidding across the kitchen tiles. You unfold the note in his claws with trembling fingers, and, of course, it is the permission slip that instructs you to stay at Hogwarts for the summer.

---

It doesn't feel like bedtime but the grandfather clock in Luna's hall says it's ten o'clock. That's bedtime at Hogwarts, and even you though you're not there, you feel obliged to obey.

Luna lends you a nightdress that is a little too tight, and - because you don't want to go back to the Burrow alone, and you don't know how to ask her to come back with you - you walk into her room. She is curled up in the bed so tightly that the quilt is tangled up in her legs and you have to curl your own legs so they don't get cold. It's uncomfortable, and you wonder if it's more so than the cold, ghostly Burrow.

"Don't be gone when I wake up," Luna says, suddenly, and in the darkness you can't see her face to see if she's looking anything but vaguely surprised and cheerful.

"I won't," you tell her, and shut your eyes.

---

You wake up in an empty bed with the sunlight streaming through Luna's heavy curtains. So you get out of bed and tiptoe (because you don't want to disturb the silence) along the long corridor of the first floor, peering through doorways, searching for Luna.

You find her in what you assume to be her father's study, sitting at the desk and writing furiously on reams of parchment, still in her pyjamas.

"The charmed quills are all gone," she says, not looking up. "And his diary, and the files, and everything. He must have taken them with him, the Ministry must be trying to close us down. I'm going to handwrite The Quibbler myself."

She says this all very quickly without taking a breath, and it may possibly be the longest thing she's ever said to you.

"But…. Surely - he wouldn't have gone without telling you?" you ask, choosing your words carefully.

Luna looks up at you then. "He might have forgotten about me," she says, seriously.

You find a tub of hot chocolate sitting on the desk, so you reach over Luna to pick it up. Downstairs in the kitchen, the cutlery drawer appears full of knives and forks and all manner of other things, but no spoons, so you resort to using your wand. Luna doesn't seem to notice when you place the hot mug in front of her, so you settle down in an armchair to drink yours and keep an eye on her.

After a little while, you lean over Luna's shoulder to see what she's writing. Her fingers fall over themselves, scribbling down gossip columns, trivial conspiracies and support for Harry Potter without actually mentioning there's a war or that anything might be scary at all.

You can't help but worry that Luna is going mad. No, maybe not going mad, because she always was, but she always seemed rather harmless. Imagine, worrying about Loony Luna Lovegood, who never seems to get upset about anything.

And when you look up at the clock and see that a whole hour has gone by, you start to worry that maybe you're mad too.

"Luna, I'm just going home for a bit, okay? I'll be back later."

Luna doesn't answer, and so, after a moment's hesitation, you head downstairs.

---

You feel like you should go home, just to have a look. It's something to do while Luna writes, and besides you might find a clue as to the whereabouts of your missing family. You didn't even check for a note last time, or take a moment to glance at the clock.

The Burrow is still empty, of course, although you didn't expect anything else. You stare up at the clock in the living room and check the hands one at a time. Your hand points to home, of course, while Charlie's and Percy's both point to work. Bill's and both your parents' are firmly set at 'far away', the twins' hands spins around and around in circles as they have ever since Fred bewitched them, and lastly, Ron's hand has settled in 'lost', but appears to be edging ever so slightly towards 'mortal peril'.

A thought hits you and so you pick up a scrap bit of parchment. Once you've written I love you on the piece of paper, you fold it up and label it carefully with a name, and then quickly add two others. Errol wakes up after some prodding, and takes the note from you in his claws. You can't imagine where Harry, Ron and Hermione are, but maybe Errol will do something right for once.

You've been wearing the same clothes for too long now, but you can't bring yourself to open your trunk in the kitchen, for some reason, so you head upstairs and ransack your brothers' wardrobes. Besides, their clothes will be looser and cooler in the heat.

Ron's bedroom is the same as ever, covered in Chudley Cannons posters and you can't help but feel that if you turn around, he'll be there scowling on his bed and asking what you want. It's hard to believe that he, and Harry and Hermione are off fighting somewhere. It's hard to think of You-Know-Who as anything but Tom, even though he stopped being Tom a long time ago.


	3. Chapter Three

Luna's crying when you get back, which surprises you more than anything so far, and you drop the clothes on the table and let her cling to you, sobbing into your shoulder like a child, all high-pitched wails and shallow choking breaths.

Eventually, when you feel her breathing start to slow, you lead her upstairs and into bed, even if it is a couple of hours early. She's still in her pyjamas, and you quickly throw yours on.

You don't remember when she stopped crying, but in the morning when you wake, she's sleeping peacefully beside you.

---

Three days later, there is still no sign of life. Errol comes home and promptly falls asleep. Luna is still spending her days in the study, although she seems to be running out of things to say - sometimes when you stick your head round the door she's simply chewing the end of her quill, frowning hard at the parchment. There is a small pile of parchment beside her - The Quibbler issues she's written so far, but she doesn't seem to have any intentions to do anything with them.

She hasn't mentioned the crying episode, so neither do you.

You've noticed, on your occasional trips back to the Burrow, that The Daily Prophet has stopped being delivered. You don't know if this is because it's been stopped by the Ministry - like The Quibbler - or whether your parents just cancelled the bill while everyone was away. You hate being reminded of your parents, because it reminds you that you're not supposed to be here, it's not them that's missing really, it's you. You haven't heard from them, still, or anybody else. Maybe owls have been stopped. But if they have, then Errol would have come home, wouldn't he?

These are the things that you think about when you wake up in the morning. You always wake a few minutes before Luna, and you don't like to get up alone. She sleeps curled up tightly, a thoughtful expression on her face that doesn't match her usual vague one. You see her stir before you hear the noise: a door opening, footsteps downstairs.

Her eyes open, panicked for a second, and then they settle on you - watching, waiting. So you get up, and think about pulling some trousers on, but decide that this t-shirt of Percy's will just have to be long enough because you don't have time. The footsteps are on the stairs already.

You step out onto the landing, and there, staring at you from the top of the stairs, is Percy. You stare back, putting two and two together and listening to the noises downstairs. He looks different. You can't put your finger on what it is, but he looks older somehow. Older than Charlie, who has a childish smile, or Bill, who's always been youthful looking. Percy looks stiff and uncomfortable in an expensive suit and you know he must be here on business.

Eventually, Percy clears his throat. "There's nobody up here," he calls, peering down over the banisters. "We might as well leave." His gaze returns to you, and you continue to meet it, wondering whether to look grateful or as though you couldn't care less.

He turns, then, away from you, and walks back down the stairs, without looking back.

Luna is sitting up in bed, waiting patiently for you, and once the voices have stopped and you hear the front door shut, you finally speak.

"We should go, Luna, they might come back."

She nods.

---

So now the Burrow is your home again, after five days at Luna's that feel like forever. Everything is clean and tidy and empty still, and you feel like a trespasser because you are not just here to visit now, you're here to sleep and eat and live.

In an awkward (for you, anyway) silence you suggest that the two of you play cards. You and Ron used to do this on endless summer evenings, and would always end up arguing. But you and Luna don't argue. You barely even talk, and you wonder what it'll take to get to know each other.

You decide to broach the subject over dinner (spaghetti, which Luna manages to eat as solemnly as she does anything else).

"Luna," you say, and decide to blurt it all out before you get silly, "Do you think we're good friends?"

Does she look surprised? More surprised than usual? It's hard to say.

"I've always thought we were."

"Oh, I do too," you tell her, hurriedly, "I just meant… well, we don't talk very much, do we?"

She looks at you for a moment, impossible to read. "What is there to say?"

"I don't know," you suddenly feel humble, "I just thought maybe we should talk more, that's all."

"If you like," she says, kindly.

---

So after dinner, the two of you sit in the big armchair by the fire and read together, old books that have been passed down to you. You read the first page aloud, and then she offers to read the second, which you enjoy more because she puts on different voices for different characters and you find yourself laughing at moments you never imagined as being funny before.

When it's time for bed, you lead the way up the stairs and then suddenly realise that you don't want to sleep in your room, not now. So you stop suddenly in the middle of the landing and open the twins' door instead, and usher Luna in. She doesn't question the fact that this clearly isn't your room, and for that, you are grateful. There are two beds in the twins' room, of course, but you only register that fact after the two of you have got into one of them together.


	4. Chapter Four

The two of you are occupied all morning with things that you find in the twins' room. Not only are there joke sweets and charmed objects, but also magic tricks from back when the two of them wanted to be Muggle magicians. Nobody else had seen the point of doing pretend magic when there was real magic to be played with, but you'd been enchanted and would sit and watch them perform for you for hours.

Luna, being a Ravenclaw, figures out the tricks within minutes and makes your wand disappear and conjures a paper fish out of your ear. As you are giggling over her serious act, you hear footsteps downstairs.

Percy, again, maybe? Or somebody else? This is far worse than at Luna's because this is your home, and where else can you run to? You look at Luna, and she stares back at you without blinking.

You take a deep breath, ready to stand up - because who-ever-it-is is on the stairs now - and then Luna suddenly kisses you. Quickly enough for you to be not sure if she really did or not, but the way she's smiling at you suggests that she did.

Maybe one of those chocolates that didn't seem to do anything was a love potion, or maybe Luna really is crazy or maybe -

The door opens suddenly, and it's Charlie. You'd be relieved if you weren't already confused.

He seems surprised to see you, and then Luna, the summer ghosts, and he takes a step backwards, and then another forwards as if he doesn't know what to do.

"I thought you were at Hogwarts," he says, finally.

"I know, but… there was a bit of a mix-up."

"Does Mum know?"

"No, obviously, or hell would've broken loose by now."

He doesn't reply, staring at you while he's thinking.

"Don't tell her, there's no point, we're fine on our own, honestly."

His eyes flit to Luna, prompted by the fact that she's staring at him in her usual grave unblinking way.

"This is Luna, a friend from school, she's keeping me company," you inform him, quickly.

"My father runs The Quibbler," Luna announces.

Charlie hesitates, and then says, "Fine, I won't tell anyone. But you'd better not leave the house…" he hesitates again, looking at you as though he can read you like a book, "well, the village, anyway. Don't leave the village."

"We won't," I promise, and he nods. "Where are you living now, anyway?"

"London," he says, shortly. "Easier for work. It's only temporary, but necessary."

"Grimmauld Place?"

"No. With a friend."

"Oh."

"Anyway, I just came back for a few things," he says, stepping back towards the door again. "I don't have any time to stay."

"We'll be alright."

"Okay." He pauses, and then leaves, calling out an awkward goodbye from behind the door. Luna looks at you.

"He doesn't like people," she whispers, as though she is the one who should make excuses for him. "What does he like instead?"

"Dragons. And Quidditch."

"Ah," she says, with understanding, and without warning produces your wand from her socks.

---

You're supposed to be Ginny Weasley, soon-to-be-seventh-year Gryffindor, currently staying at Hogwarts during the summer with your friends. Instead, you're a summer ghost, flitting from room to room in your empty home with another ghostly girl who stares too long and says too little. Loony Luna Lovegood kissed you yesterday.

---

"Luna," you ask tentatively over breakfast, and then all your Gryffindor bravery disappears and you ask an entirely different question instead. "Where do you think your father is?"

Luna swallows a mouthful of toast. "I don't know."

"Have you tried owling him?"

She is quiet for a moment. "Yes," she says, at last. "But there wasn't a reply."


	5. Chapter Five

The next day, you and Luna walk down to the village to go shopping. There's still plenty of food in the Burrow, but you feel as though you need to be reminded that there is life somewhere out there, even if it's old Mrs. Warner, the Muggle woman who runs the corner shop.

Luna stares at the array of Muggle sweets as though dazzled, even though you're sure she must have seen such things before, given her knowledge of Muggle money. You hover by the newspapers, scanning headlines, and then drop to your knees to pick one up and flick through it. Mrs Warner frowns at you, and her eyes flit to the sign above your head, the one that reads 'Please do not read the magazines and newspapers in the shop', and Luna notices and places three coins and a tube full of colourful round sweets on the counter, and says, "And the newspaper too."

On the way back, you attempt to search through it further, and the only thing that possibly means anything to you is a story about odd weather in the Arctic, and something that sounds very much to you like a Muggle Protection Charm. Luna pushes a purple coloured sweet into your mouth, comfortingly.

"Purple's the best kind," she says.

When you get home, you dig out all the gloves from the cupboard, all nine pairs, and wrap them up in brown paper. You gaze doubtfully at Errol, but Luna appears and offers to lend you her owl, Periwinkle, a grey wide-eyed bird that holds out her foot obediently.

She returns three days later, cooing softly at you, empty-footed. You don't know if this is a good sign or not.

---

The first week of August is fruit picking week. Your mother would produce big wicker baskets and you and all your brothers would walk up into the orchards. Bill would always end up carrying your basket, because you liked to be able to skip about in the long grass, eating more fruit than you'd save. Charlie would fly up to the tops of the trees for the best apples, whilst Fred and George would soon tire of just picking and eating and end up throwing apples and each other and everyone else. Ron would eat the most, telltale red stains around his mouth, and Percy would "tut" disapprovingly, but you still saw him slip the odd strawberry into his mouth.

Today, you dig around in the cupboard under the stairs and produce two wicker baskets, and dust them off with a quick charm. Luna wanders over with interest.

"Fruit picking?" she asks.

"Yes."

Up in the orchard grow strawberries and apples, plums and pears, blackberries and raspberries. Luna likes the blackberries; not only are there stains around her mouth, but all over her fingers too, and down the front of George's t-shirt that you've lent her.

You like the apples, which leave no mess at all.

---

In the evening, you stand on a stool and reach for the cookery books on the high up shelves in the kitchen. Summer isn't summer without fruit tarts and salads and pastries. Luna helps, still excited by the summer games.

Most summers it was just you and your mother who would do this. Ron would start off interested but soon tire, while the rest of your brothers barely ventured near the kitchen at all until it was all over and the finished products were there for the eating.

Luna's mouth is still smudged with purple-red. Luna kissed you with that mouth, three days ago, in a moment when you were in between thoughts and actions, in a summer when you are in between worlds. Loony Luna Lovegood has become a friend, this summer, certainly, but she has also become something else. She seems more real than ever, less dream-like.

When you lean over the fruit bowl to pick up the wooden spoon and knock noses with Luna who is reaching forward for more berries, it seems to be a moment waiting to happen. Luna doesn't look surprised, at least, no more than usual. You kiss Luna, in case she doesn't take the chance to kiss you, sticky lips moving together clumsily. Loony Luna Lovegood, of all people.

---

Sharing a bed with Luna has been many things: surprising, uncomfortable, cramped, comforting - and now it is something entirely different. The two of you have been sleeping in Ron's room since yesterday, because you feel that all the rooms should have their fair share of haunting - it might make the house feel more alive.

You slip into bed first, while Luna is in the bathroom. You are wearing nothing but a t-shirt (Charlie's) over your cotton knickers. Luna always wears long heavy night-gowns, lavishly decorated with flowers, and somehow they always tangle up in her legs. You'd think she'd be too hot at night, but she always feels pleasantly cool against you in the stuffy night air.

Luna turns off the light as she stands in the bedroom doorway. Before she does so, you see that she still hasn't stopped smiling. Familiar floorboards squeak, the sound of breathing gets louder, and you feel her climb clumsily into bed beside you. She kisses you straight away, as you're reaching out to pull her in. She doesn't taste of sticky fruit anymore, but of something else, strange, that you don't recognise but you assume must be her odd green toothpaste.

You slide over one another like ghosts, gentle and searching as lips meet again and again and fingers grasp at each other firmly. You have thought Loony Luna Lovegood to be many things: odd, well meaning, misunderstood, unpredictable, but words don't quite cover her anymore.


	6. Chapter Six

In the morning, you wake to find Luna halfway down the bed, licking your stomach with a cheeky smile. You've never truly taken the time to look at her before, beyond her big blue eyes, and for a moment all you can do is stare at her, until she laughs, and says, "Go and get breakfast, silly."

Downstairs in the kitchen, you sip at a glass of water and wonder whether today you want strawberry or plum jam, and then there is a knock at the back door. Not Percy again, he's always a front door kind of person; Charlie wouldn't knock, neither would the rest of your brothers, your parents certainly wouldn't. You tug Charlie's t-shirt down self-consciously and wonder what to do, when the door opens weakly, and Harry Potter stumbles in and collapses on the floor as though he's Errol.

He looks so pathetic and weak down there, you're not sure how you ever could have thought you were so madly in love with him. His glasses are cracked, and his hair full of dust, and he's gripping his wand tightly as though it might try and escape. Then you notice that he's wearing Weasley gloves - Fred's. So the parcel did arrive, after all.

You kneel down, and shake him gently. "Harry?"

He doesn't move, but he doesn't look hurt either. You walk over to the stairs, and call up for Luna, who hurries down and uses a charm to lessen the weight as you drag him into the living room and put him on the sofa.

The two of you sit and eat your breakfast and gaze at him, not talking. You hate the idea that your first crush should be here on the sofa when all this has happened with Luna - which you realise is incredibly selfish of you when you see the deep purple bruises on Harry's arms which look like they were fixed with a too-hasty spell, and the sheer exhaustion he seems to be suffering from.

He wakes ten minutes later, blinking stupidly and then Luna fixes his glasses with a charm. He tries to sit up, gazing at both of you as though he can't remember how he got here, and you stand up and say briskly, "Come on, lets get you to a proper bed."

He lets the two of you guide him up the stairs, you leading the way and Luna walking behind, and you decide to put him in Percy's room, which is perfectly tidy and has the best bed, as it has been jumped on the least.

Harry lies back in bed gratefully, and Luna pulls a strawberry tart on a plate out of nowhere, and offers it to him. You would like to ask him about Ron and Hermione, or about the rest of the world, or anything that means anything - but you don't.

---

You and Luna spend the rest of the day in silence, reading in the living room. You're not sure if she's engrossed in her book or cross with you or anything, because Luna is still a mystery to you in many ways. It's only when you look up as you turn a page, that you see that her book is The Encyclopaedia of Magical Maladies.

"Luna… you don't mind, do you? About Harry, I mean."

She looks up at you, surprised. "Of course not, silly."

Relieved, you get up, partly to go and get a drink, and mostly because you feel self-conscious of your pink cheeks and wide smile, even if it is only Luna and she's buried in her book again.

When you reach the kitchen, there is another knock at the door, and you open it without thinking.

Hermione stands there, and although she too looks in a bad way, she seems somewhat more composed than Harry. Her hair is a mess, a bruise blossoming on her cheek, but she says, very calmly, "I'm sorry to bother you, Ginny, but is Harry here?"

"Yes, he arrived this morning." You realise that she's not going to come in until she's invited, so you stand back and say, "Do come in."

She does so, and then asks, doubtfully, "And… Ron?" She doesn't seem surprised when you shake your head. She too is wearing Weasley gloves.

"I hope you don't mind if I stay in Ron's room for a little while," she announces, but still looks at you for approval.

"Not at all," you say, finding yourself acting politely in return. "You look tired, you should go to bed."

"Thank you," she says, gratefully, and you see that she is eyeing the selection of fruit tarts.

"Go on, take some up with you, some for Harry if you like."

"Thank you," Hermione says again, and picks some up carefully, along with a plate.

When Hermione is gone, Luna comes into the kitchen, still holding her book, and picks up a strawberry.

"We can play nurses," she says, happily. "I've learnt all kinds of things today. You can carry the bandages and the ingredients," she adds, kindly, and then, "I suppose you want to borrow Periwinkle?"

Periwinkle flies into the night, carrying your note to Ron, and you and Luna watch her until she's a speck in the clouds, and then neither of you move for a little while.

"Let's go to bed," Luna says, at last, and takes your hand.

---

In the darkness of your bedroom, Luna listens as you start talking and can't stop. About Ron and about Harry and Hermione and Charlie and the twins and Percy and Bill and your parents, and how you shouldn't even be here.

Luna doesn't say anything, but lets you talk until you run out of breath and words. Then she kisses you softly, and pulls a flower out of your ear.


	7. Chapter Seven

When you go upstairs to bring Harry and Hermione their breakfast, you find Percy's room empty, but for two envelopes neatly on the pillow. The label on one reads, 'Ron and Hermione', and the other, 'Ginny'. Your stomach jolts once at each envelope, as though it can still be surprised by anything these days. You slip them into your pocket and carry on up the stairs.

Hermione is curled up on her side in Ron's bed, and somebody is lying behind her, you can see a lazy hand draped over her, and feet sticking out of the other end of the bed. You edge nearer, and of course it's Ron, who else would it be? You leave the breakfast and their envelope on the bedside table, and move to tiptoe out of the room again.

"Thanks, Gin," Ron says suddenly, making you jump.

"It's alright."

You sit down in the kitchen, where Luna is eating toast, and open the envelope with shaky fingers. All the parchment inside reads is, 'sorry thank you', three words with no real attempt at punctuation or structure, three words that seem to imply the Boy Who Lived actually owed you something.

"He's sorry," Luna says, ominously.

"But what for? For coming to stay, do you think? He does that every year, I know this is a bit different, but…"

"He's sorry because if this was a fairy story he'd marry you in the happy ending," Luna says, rather bluntly, but you can't tell what she thinks of this. "And he doesn't entirely feel the part of the hero."

"Even if he did…" you begin, hurriedly, not sure if Luna is looking for reassurance.

"Exactly," she says, "that's another reason why he's sorry."

---

Luna is bandaging Hermione's bruised fingers with a very serious look on her face, while Hermione, though quiet, seems a little impatient.

"Honestly, they're not as bad as they look," she insists, "I just need to rest them for a while."

"Exactly," Luna says, cheerfully, "And these bandages will help."

"How?"

"They'll remind you to rest."

Hermione stares at Luna doubtfully but to your relief, she doesn't say anything.

Ron is sitting on the bed, his ankle already bandaged, reading Harry's letter. He's been doing this for some time, longer than the short parchment seems to require, although you have no idea what it says. He looks troubled, somehow, his face creased in thought.

---

Some time in the afternoon, when you're wandering from room to room just to check that everything is alright, you bump into Hermione in a hallway. She immediately starts crying, as though she's been hiding the sobs inside for a long time, and hugs you very tightly. As you're patting her vaguely on the shoulder and wondering what to do, Luna appears in a doorway and waves an issue of the Daily Prophet at you, and mimes happily, so as not to interrupt Hermione's crying.

The Daily Prophet has a big picture of Harry on the front page, and he stares out at you, tired and bruised but determined, underneath a headline that reads 'Victory!'. Through Luna's pointing and waving, you establish that she is going home, and then she's gone before you can really do or say anything back.

After a few minutes, Hermione sniffs a little and straightens up. "I'm sorry," she says, awkwardly.

"Don't worry about it."

"It's just… Harry, you know. He's gone, I suppose you know that, I just worry that…"

You smile kindly.

"It's silly really, I suppose," she admits, turning back into sensible Hermione. "Shall we go and cook dinner?"

In the end, you sit watching her cook, because you feel as though you are getting in her way. She seems to take comfort in racing around the kitchen picking up different ingredients and pots and pans, doing everything the Muggle way instead of using Charms.

"So why are you here?" she asks, as she begins to slice up the vegetables. "On your own?"

"I was supposed to stay at Hogwarts," you admit, "But there was a bit of a mix-up so I ended up here, with Luna. Her father's missing."

"Probably in hiding," Hermione says, knowingly. You were expecting her to scold you for not going back to Hogwarts, or writing to a responsible adult, but she doesn't.

---

It seems like a long time since you last had a bed to yourself. In the end, you take some pillows from the twins' room, and fill one side of the bed with them, leaving you curled up on the edge of the bed fighting for the quilt.

Luna will come back in the morning, you're sure. Or she'll owl, or something. She won't just forget about you, like her father did about her... Surely?


	8. Chapter Eight

You wake in the morning to find Hermione bringing you breakfast.

"Thought you might want to see this," she adds, handing you a newspaper. It is The Quibbler, and as you flick through the pages, you see several of Luna's articles. It seems a very long time ago that she was scribbling in her pyjamas.

On the way to the bathroom, you peek into the twins' room as you always do, and to your surprise you see that they are actually in there, curled up in bed together, looking tired and troubled.

---

You don't feel you can wander from room to room today, in your usual haunting check, because there are too many people here. You're used to an empty, ghostly Burrow by now, used to Luna being by your side.

Eventually you go out into the garden for some solitude, but even there you find somebody. Charlie, de-gnoming as if he's been here all summer.

"Sorry," he says, awkwardly, and rather uselessly.

"Why?" Everybody is sorry, all of a sudden. Harry, Hermione, now Charlie, as if you're being noble for putting them up, as if it's your house, as if they've never been here before. You don't want them to be sorry, you wouldn't expect it of them, but somehow it seems as though you'd be doing them a favour if you were grateful.

"For just turning up like this."

"It's not my house, I'm not in charge here, it's not like… like, Mum's dead or something!" A large part of your mind suddenly opens up and all the fear and worry you were expecting to feel this summer races into your conscious thoughts.

"Of course she's not…" Charlie says, looking rather bewildered. "She's in Egypt, out of the way, isn't she?"

You stare at him for a second, and then turn back into the house.

---

You hadn't meant to go to sleep - just lie on your bed for a while and think about things, because even with all the thinking you've been doing recently it seems there's still things left to be thought about. You didn't even notice yourself falling to sleep, and then you wake up and realise that it's evening.

As you wander into the kitchen to find the others, to see who's still here and who has come back (Luna?), you find Bill stepping out of the fireplace. Your parents are standing in the kitchen already, and Hermione's taking the luggage upstairs as though she's the nurse round here.

"Why aren't you at Hogwarts?" your mother asks suddenly, catching sight of you. She doesn't sound cross, just tired and worried.

"Errol was late… I was already at home by the time he turned up with the permission slip," you say quickly, but she still hasn't got cross.

"Well, at least you're safe," she says. She probably thinks Charlie was here with you, or something. The thought hits you then that everybody is home now except for Percy, and Luna.

---

You still haven't given up your just-before-bed room-checking routine, and to your relief you see that Harry is back, lying in a heap with the other two in Ron's room. Charlie and Bill are snoring, and the twins' voices can be heard in their own room. Downstairs, your mother is knitting and your father is reading The Quibbler.

Everything feels unnaturally normal. Once you were a summer ghost, flitting from doorway to doorway, haunting an empty house with a girl who suddenly shares your entire world. Now you're a girl again, the youngest child, one of many in a noisy anything-but-empty world.

And then, just as you are falling asleep that night, you suddenly find Luna crawling into bed beside you.

"My father's fine," she whispers, excitedly. "The Quibbler's fine, everything's fine! Are you?" she adds, suddenly, as though she might have forgotten to think about this one.

"Yes." Suddenly you don't feel tired anymore. "Everyone's home now."


End file.
